I have to admit to having slightly neglected our blog last year. 2014 was a rather frantic year with our gardening and landscaping departments working flat out from the beginning until the end of the year. 2015 has started somewhat more sedately which has given me some time to plan for the year ahead-or should I say try and plan?
Running a gardening business nowadays is like staring into a crystal ball and trying to make sense of the seemingly random patterns emerging. I’m constantly asked for gardening advice when the weather seems to change radically from month to month and year to year. (The Met Office stated that it is more likely to snow at Easter than at Christmas these days). As a result I have to keep my responses rather vague and qualify ‘but it depends on the weather’.
London of course has its own micro climate and last winter we suffered a grand total of 3 overnight frosts which meant that we could have planted and even turfed throughout the winter and got away with little or no loss. This winter we are seemingly back to a more normal pattern of cold spells-or are we?
Then there’s the economy. Growing last year but slowing this year. Politicians with radically different plans as to how to cause yet more misery and an election too close to call have led to customers holding back and delaying any plans until they know what happens in May. So do we invest for growth or hold on until the outlook is more certain?
Its tempting just to play it safe and put everything on hold. But I hate safe-a little bit of risk is what makes gardening fun and running a gardening business is no different. This year we plan to expand again (modestly) and we’ll also be taking a long hard look at improving our customer experience so that if you decide to give us a call, you’ll hopefully get a warm response and a great service.
And then there’s nature itself-always keeping us on our toes. Always beautiful, always a challenge. Nothing improves the day more than to take a moment to really appreciate the colours of a sunrise or the simple beauty of a winter flower.
